Just Get to The Second Try

During my college years (and after) I played guitar in a few bands.  It was a ton of fun, despite the fact that none of them made my bandmates and I the rockstars we had set out to be.

I remember that first band I formed when I arrived at college.  We started writing songs and practicing our setlist — over and over — for many months, all in preparation for our very first live performance.  By our 100th or so practice session, the four of us felt pretty good about we sounded.  We had found our groove, memorized the changes, and nailed every song… At least when we played it my basement with no audience, we did.

So when we finally booked our first gig at a bar in Bloomington, Indiana, we were pumped.  We couldn’t wait to take our college town by storm!  We envisioned hundreds bar-goers tuning in and getting down to our music.  We envisioned jumping around a stage sounding as good as we did in the practice room.  We figured this first show would generate enough buzz to book ourselves solid for the rest of the year.

So how did that work out?

Shitty.  Things didn’t quite go according to plan.  This gig gave us the 8pm-9pm timeslot, a good 3 hours before most college kids arrive at the bar.  There were about 6 people in the audience, including the bar tender and our girlfriends.  The sound engineer didn’t bother giving us a sound check, so we couldn’t hear ourselves playing, which makes very hard to play and sing in the right key.  We brought a box of 100 CDs (remember those?) to hand out.  We handed out 2, which ended up being used as beer coasters.

That first show was a total failure.  But it gave me one of the best lessons I ever learned.

Your first attempt will suck.  Get over it, and get to your second attempt as soon as possible.

From that point forward, I decided I would go into every new venture with the assumption that the first try will be a failure.  I don’t expect to make any real progress until attempt #2 and thereafter.  In fact, I’m so anxious to get to that 2nd try that I will push to get that first (failed) attempt over with as soon as possible.

I still hold on to this lesson in my work today.  When I’m preparing to launch a new startup, I aim to open the doors to paying customers as soon possible, with the expectation that there will be zero sales the first week.  Luckily, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with all of my recent launches, but that’s the point.  By setting expectations low, things can only go up.

This week I launched the first episode of my new podcast, Bootstrapped Web.  I think it’s off to an OK start, but I know the real fun will begin as I add to the list of episodes and case studies, when I find my groove and figure out what’s working and what’s not.

That band from college eventually went on to play many more gigs.  Many of them were far better than the first.  And I think I’m getting better at this bootstrapped startup thing.  Things seem to come together more easily than they did a few years ago.  That’s how these things go.  Fail fast and learn by doing.

Remember:  Your first try will suck.  Just get to the 2nd try.